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Discover Palma de Mallorca

Town hall in Palma de Mallorca

Palma’s town hall is one of the must visits for anyone coming to the city

Palma’s town hall is a building with a baroque façade located in the square of Cort, in the center of the city. This square gets its name due to the gathering of the old courts and feudal curies in this place.

The current building was built between 1649 y 1680 where the Hospital of Sant Andreu used to be. Before the construction of the town hall, the square was named after this hospital. The town hall has a traditional Mallorcan style façade, with three different floors with an eaves on the top. It has two lateral doors and on the first floor can be found a balcony with seven large windows. On the top of the main large window, it can be found the town hall’s clock, known as the Reloj d’en Figuera.

This clock was installed on the town hall in 1963, although it had been working for centuries on the church of the Dominics, in Santo Domingo street. It was one of the first, or even the first public tower with a clock and a bell in Spain. This clock was a very special one, because instead of 12 hours, it used to have 14. This 14 hours are the maximum hours that the sun is over the horizon during the month of June and on the other hand, the maximum number of hours that it is hidden during the month of December. Thus, the first day sunlight, from 6:30 to 7:30 during the month of June, was the one o’clock in this curious clock. In 1849 the clock was replaced by a normal 12 hours clock, as the ones we use nowadays.

On the main façade it can also be highlighted the “banc de sinofós” or bench of the lazy people. The translation of “si no fos” is “if it wasn’t” and it was the way the lazy people used to answer when they were offered a job; if it wasn’t because of my rheumatism, if it wasn’t because I have to do something else, if it wasn’t because my arm hurts, etc. I would be glad to work for you.

Looking to the main façade, on the left door, we can find two small figurines of a lizard and a snail. These two small animals are the signatures of the two people in charge of refurbishing the building, whose names were Jaume Caragol and Francesc Dragó. The translation to English of Caragol is Snail and Dragó is lizard. These two artists were not allowed of signing the refurbishment project and they decided to sign it on the main façade of the building with these two small figurines.

If you are interested in getting to know all the secrets of Palma, make a guided tour with us. You can also rent a bike and enjoy Palma on your own.

Remember that if you do not want to carry your luggage you can come to our left luggage in Palma. We are located in the very center, only a few meters away from the town hall.